How to be a happy mum

How to be a happy mum is a question that torments many of us at various points of the parenting journey.

Last week, I started a new blog hop/meme/linky, call it what you will, concerned with helping Mums to have a bit of a personal revival and get their groove back. It is all about recognising that the individual woman sometimes gets lost a bit in the business of being a mum and trying desperately to juggle it all.

I was delighted to see seven lovely mums joining in and hope even more will write a blog post and link up this week. I also got so many comments that clearly shows I am not alone in asking where that feisty woman of yesteryear has gone to and resolving to find her.

So what might help you get your groove back? It might be doing a course, volunteering, applying for a job or looking into setting up a business. It might be as simple as taking time out for you to go for a walk, to have a pampering session or to organise a night out with the girls. It might be learning to say no to some things and yes to others. It might be returning to an old hobby or developping a new skill. The fun of it all is that you get to choose and then you get to share how it all went with some very supportive blogger friends going through the same sort of thing.

To clarify things, you can link up on any day of the week but if you do it on Tuesday, that is fabulous. Please do try and find time to visit some of the other entries (or all of them) as you can bet you will be inspired and also able to give a supportive comment or two too. I will visit and support all entries.

I like to play around a bit (oo-er missus!) so will set little (tiny) challenges or things you can do and report back on the following week. However, this blog hop is not about rules so please feel free to post about what you want and to ignore any parts of the challenges you don’t like.

This week, I have two questions for you.

What song would be best to play a lot whilst attempting to get your groove back?

My choice is Revival by Annie Lennox

What can you do to make your body feel better this week?

Right, what have I done to get my va-va-voom back this week.

1. I have had a habit since experiencing post-natal depression of hiding from and saying no to positive experiences. I have made myself a bit of a prisoner sometimes I think. This week, I said yes to a night out at the seaside, yes to a shopping trip to town and yes to a carnival.

2. I have also got very much into putting my family first which is a good thing but not if it means you are constantly denying yourself. This week, I went out and bought myself a new duvet and some silly but fun things from the charity shop that amused me. You really don’t need bigger justifiction than that. Do I like it? Do I consider it be beautiful or useful? Can I afford it? Right, buy it – where’s the problem? You can see my finds at the charity shop in my Magpie Monday post from yesterday.

3. I am looking into volunteering in a charity shop, at school and with Homestart. For those who don’t know Homestart provides trained volunteers to support mums with children under 5 years old. I think a Homestart volunteer could have transformed my life when I was finding looking after 2 under 2 and a 4 year old so tough.

4. I have continued to indulge in healthy eating most of the time and join in the #mumentum community of women trying to lose mummy tummies. I said more about this yesterday including revealing that I am such an emotional eater so need to tackle that.

So that’s me but this blog hop is all about you. Yes you who is thinking whether you should join in or not. What are you up to? Are you going to commit to improving your own life? Fancy joining some very lovely women doing the same? Well then, what are you waiting for?

Write a post today or if you really can’t manage that sometime before next Monday and link up below. Any questions, just email me on mums-the-word@live.com.

Ideally, take time out this week to visit some or all of the other entries from brave and open women and give them a lovely comment on their blog.

I look forward to hearing how you are getting on.

Another favour, please tweet about your post and use the hashtag thing so that we can all spread the word about the blog hop. Do the same if you will on other social media sites too. I have decided to keep it simple so please use the #groovingmums when mentioning this blog hop.

If you don’t do any of these things, I will not be hunting you down with a big stick. If you do them, I think we will all get more out of the experience.

Right, time for me to stop babbling and you to start blogging and linking up. Ready, steady, go and find out how to be a happy mom.

Related

About Kate Davis-Holmes

Award-winning writer, blogger, social media consultant and charity campaigner.
Social Media Manager for BritMums, the UK's largest parent blogging network
Freelance clients include Firefly Communications and Save the Children UK.
Works with brands on marketing projects. Examples include Visit Orlando, Give As You Live, Coca-Cola and Kodak.
Cambridge Law graduate with many years experience working across three sectors in advice, media relations, events, training and project management.
Available for hire at affordable rates.

Comments

I must be quick off the mark this morning as I’ve just published my post but the Linky Tools isn’t open yet! I’ll come back later to add my post to the list. Such a great idea. My song choice is also Annie Lennox 🙂

I kept umming and ahing about whether to do this meme or not, which is why I’m over a week late to the party. Now I have, I’m glad, and I’ll continue to write for it each week. I think it’s a great idea! It’ll help us all find ourselves again, and connect with each other, which is lovely. 🙂

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Pleased to meet you!

I'm Kate and thanks so much for visiting my blog.
The blog aims to make women feel great about themselves and to help with the challenging issues life sometimes throws our way as women and mums. It also highlights good causes, celebrates our family life and sometimes goes too far and slips right through that thin ice!